


unsteady ground

by Darkfromday



Series: Arc-V Rare Pair Week 2017 [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Arc V Rare Pair Week, F/M, M/M, lateposting 2017, prompt fills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 06:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11962065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: Prompt fills for Arc-V Rare Pair Week, Day 2: Sensitive.





	1. the noisy past (yuuya/kachidoki)

Neither one of them talks about three things: their fathers, their war tours, or their tempers.

It’s hard (at first) to start a relationship with someone when so many sensitive subjects are already off-limits. But Sakaki Yuuya didn’t choose Kachidoki Isao on his own. They chose each other, and kept gravitating toward one another like twin suns; always burning inside, gleaming outside.

Yuuya and Kachidoki bond over rainbow sherbet ice cream and martial arts. The latter is Kachidoki’s passion of course, but its similarities in form and function to Action Dueling stir and fan Yuuya’s interest. In exchange, Yuuya takes him out for that ice cream by the lake. The two activities become inextricable from then on.

Not mentioning their shortcomings or their crimes against one another, which echo loudly behind every word and deed anyway, is an ingrained habit by the time Maiami learns they’re dating. It takes a while to bend this trend.

* * *

One day, Kachidoki and Yuuya go to get arm tattoos. The line is out-the-door full of rebellious college students and summer school truants, so they go to the arts and crafts supply store instead and Yuuya ends up inking his boyfriend’s arm at the dog park.

“I didn’t ever see you as the type to get tattoos,” he says breezily as he colors in one part of a twin lightning bolt–-then he feels like falling into a black hole for even hinting at Kachidoki’s own “rebellious phase”. Those occult rainbow markings still gave him nightmares.

His purple-haired partner just gives him a really, really long Look before shrugging and picking a bug out of his hair without changing expression.

“… _Hey_ , quit twitching and shivering or your other lightning bolt won’t come out right!”

* * *

 

Two months after Kachidoki visits and enjoys Yuuya’s first performance he says, “I should meet your father.”

Just, you know, out of the blue.

The Pendulum founder sputters and drops his radish-colored wig from last night’s musical. It’s the first time Kachidoki has even acknowledged that he knows Yuuya’s father came home from the war. (But see, when  _Yuuya_  asked  _Kachidoki_  to meet  _his_  father before he just got a flippant “When I finish my training and meet him myself, so can you.” Which,  _wow_.)

“Y-You want… you want to… I m-mean sure, it’s no problem, it’s just that he’s been really busy rebuilding his reputation! So he might be really busy…”

 _I barely see him myself_ , he doesn’t say, but Kachidoki seems to understand that anyway. Yuushou’s return had not erased what his initial departure had wrought, not that he seemed to notice. He divides most of his time these days between ceremonial duels and dinner dates with Yuuya’s mother, which is  _fine_ , except that he has a son too.

Kachidoki doesn’t rescind his request, but he doesn’t push it either.

* * *

“Tell me about the Lancers,” Kachidoki says another time. They’re spooning on Yuuya’s couch, watching late night true-crime, and Yuuya was playing with the tails of Kachidoki’s purple hair like a cat would. The question causes him to accidentally yank a few strands out; his stone-cold paramour doesn’t even flinch.

“Is it already time to trade me in?” he teases.

“No, I mean–-your time with them. Going to war, when it’s completely against your nature. How… was it?”

Yuuya hesitates–-bites his lip–-fiddles with the remote.  _We’ve done so well_ not  _talking about the dimensional war, or our own duels, or any of that old pain._ It doesn’t help that he’s a little more emotional about all this than Kachidoki, or the other Lancers, or his parents, or…

There’s a pressure on the crown of his head, right around the strand that always sticks up. Then again. Kachidoki is kissing him.

He talks slowly, but puts weight in every word, settling Yuuya’s nerves and keeping him still.

“Sakaki,” he eventually says, “not talking about Academia, Zarc or duel schools worked fine before when we were starting this. I don’t want to get to a point where it… doesn’t work fine.”

 _Oh_.

“There’s no future without a past,” Kachidoki continues, looking straight into Yuuya’s scarlet eyes. “I want us to have a future–-so we need to have the past too.”

Yuuya can’t bring himself to blurt out more than haphazard feelings and impressions about the Lancers and his time in the resistance that night. And it takes them both a while to feel comfortable mentioning other personal things they’d previously made off-limits-–days, weeks, months. But gradually they merge their bumpy past with their smooth present.

The rainbow sherbet ice cream helps.


	2. battlegrounds and propaganda (yuuto/serena)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Assumptions: Serena was actually allowed to train to subdue the other dimensions while she was in Academia–-except that when she did arrive, alone and unauthorized, she met Yuuto first.

When Serena tears down another poster bearing her likeness and rips it in half, Yuuto kind of loses his mind.

“Would you  _please_  stop doing that?”

“No,” she says firmly. “Academia can’t find out that I’m here.  _At all_. And I don’t want my face all over Maiami making things that much easier for them.”

She drops the indistinguishable pieces to the ground. He tries, without much success, to pick them all up.

“That face isn’t just yours,” he insists, just as strongly. “It’s Ruri’s… and Yuzu’s.”

 _Who the hell is Yuzu_? Serena wonders for only a split second. “If you mean the copies of me, then you should be happy I’m getting rid of the enemy’s posters. This keeps them safe t–-”

Before she blinks next, Yuuto is up in her face, with one hand closed around her reaching wrist in a vice grip.

“ _Don’t_ call Ruri a copy.”

She’s hit a sore spot but she’s too distracted to take advantage of it. The rebellion’s figurehead towers over her and his gray eyes blaze protectively. He’s scary when he’s upset–-but also very, very striking.

And brave. Boys generally kept their distance from Serena of Academia. Even Yuuri, the boy who shared Yuuto’s face, didn’t share his nerve.

“…Doppelgänger then,” she eventually breathes. “One that I still want to protect as much as you do, so back off.”

Yuuto actually  _smirks_ , and draws his cloak close around them, mockingly quoting her. “Are you scared of me, ‘conqueror from Fusion’?”

“Not hardly,” she fires back, adding a snort for good measure.  _Not that you’d ever find out._  “I’m confident that you need me. My knowledge and dueling skills are too good for your resistance to pass up.”

She’s known this in her bones ever since she transported here and fell onto him from midair. After he’d finished mistakenly calling her his best friend and asking her how she escaped from the dastardly clutches of  _her own homeworld_ , Serena tied him down and made him explain where the hell she was and what was going on. Then it had been her turn–-to reveal her origins, to earn his trust by assuring him that she didn’t  _actually_  want what Academia wanted (“I thought you were Yuuri, I had to pretend!”), and to propose a partnership.

So now they’re here, reluctant allies with no common ground: a girl from the land of the aggressors and a boy who’s lost everything he loves because of that girl’s land and her people. Serena needs to keep Academia from finding her  _or_  finding out why she hasn’t reported back in; Yuuto needs to keep himself, his old friends and his new friends from being carded.

Though it’s tantalizing, the last thing either of them needs is…  _this._ This  _tension_.

Yuuto finally (unfortunately) steps away from her and grunts. “Fine. We’ll do things your way for now. You keep getting rid of Academia’s decoy posters, and I’ll find information we can use against the inevitable invasion of Standard.”

“Was that so hard?” Serena teases him, closing the distance between them again for no particular reason, really. “Now we should split up for a while again–-throw off any pursuers or observers. You can go find those friends you’re so worried about while you gather intel on the caliber of Standard duelists.”

He lifts one violet eyebrow. “And what else will  _you_  be doing besides rendering paper unrecognizable?”

“Finding some old friends of my own.”

It’s been three years since she met Akaba Reiji by chance while trying to escape her tower–-three years since she’s learned the truth about her homeland and the man who led it, and all that time she’s kept her enlightenment a secret to better her chances of escape the next time.

Three years since she first heard the name of Academia’s final target in his dismissive words:  _Send my son Reiji home, to Standard_.

And it’s long past time they meet again.

Yuuto puts a hand briefly on her shoulder, searching her face. “Don’t take any stupid risks… Serena.”

(It is stupid, how much she hopes he is finding features that distinguish her from Ruri, Yuzu or any other girl.)

“Back at you, Yuuto. Let’s check back in with each other at midnight.”

“Don’t be late.” He flashes a grin and then he’s gone, leaping up to a fire escape in the alley nearby and nearly taking to the sky.

Serena’s whole right side tingles. She ignores it as best she can as she consults the skyscrapers and her compass and heads in the opposite direction from her new partner.

North, to LDS.


	3. wounded wings (shun/sayaka)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set before Yuuto and Shun arrive in Standard.

“Shun?” she called, knocking once more on the back door. “I’ve brought more soup. Can I come in today?”

As she waited, Sayaka braced herself for the inevitable refusal. Though it had grown softer over time, Shun’s forceful voice had denied her and any others entry to his old home ever since Ruri was kidnapped on her way back to it. There was really no reason why today would be any different.

“…Come in, Sayaka.”

She almost dropped the soup bowl. It was overcast today again, but for her the sun may as well have just come out, and brought some flying pigs for good measure.

Her mother’s voice echoed in her head from an old memory.  _Wonderful, Sayaka-chan! Remember to always persevere. Always take at least one step forward. If not for yourself, then for those you care about_.

“Coming,” she said hastily, and pushed the door open with her hip. Above her, moths made a break for the back door’s light; at waist level, a thin layer of dust covered cabinets, chairs and couches.

She eventually found Shun in his bedroom (which  _of course_  she blushed furiously before entering) cradling his left arm to his side, which once again put the poor soup bowl in danger of befriending the floor.

“Oh my–-are you okay?!”

The older boy visibly winced. “I’m  _fine_ … besides you damaging my ears with that shriek.”

“But your arm…”

“I’ve got it handled. About that soup…”

Sayaka set it down on the old dresser beside him, relieved it was still warm. “Here it is.”

Shun didn’t thank her, which was nothing new–-normally she waited outside for hours calling to him before finally leaving the food for him to sneak out and get. No thank-you notes ever materialized outside the refugee shelter after their usual routine of him coming to get food, either, so she didn’t wait around for any changes now.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t a little hurt by his new habit of pushing everyone away.

“Quit that.”

She startled out of her own head, going even redder when she saw Shun’s gold eyes pinning her in place like dumb prey. “I–- I–- wh–wha?”

“Staring, Sayaka–-quit staring,” he snapped, between slurps of soup and minor position-shifts on his bed.

The reprimand left her dumbfounded at first, before his behavior as a whole caused Sayaka to feel a flicker of annoyance. With another bit of bravery still left in her, she snapped right back. “I was only counting how many times I might have already made you a splint if you weren’t so stubborn!”

Shun turned to look at her faster than he ever had; he even had the good sense to look apologetic and sheepish as he held out his broken arm and tried out some one-handed soup-slurping.

Sayaka had the splint done in less than an hour.

“Thanks,” Shun said softly at the end, grudgingly. He seemed to mellow out the longer she’d had her hands on him. He still wasn’t the way he’d been before the invasion–-but Sayaka didn’t think he ever would be again. It didn’t seem  _possible_  to go back, for any of them.

While washing the soup bowl and some of her old clothes across the house, she looked around for its other occupant, noticing for the first time on her way back that he didn’t seem to be there.  _That_  was probably the main reason behind Shun’s  _strikingly_   _good_  mood.

“Shun,” she queried gently as she re-entered his space, “where’s Yuut–-?”

“ _Don’t_.”

 _Ack!_  Despite herself, she quailed. His tone had slipped into the subzero range. Worse, it meant that Yuuto was gone. But had he run off to clear his head or–- _or had he been_ –-?!

“B-b-but what…  _happened_  to him?”

Shun’s voice was a growl all the way through. “Left. To try and find clues about where they took Ruri.”

 _Left?_  “So he’s left Heartland? Left the continent?”

“No. He’s left our dimension–-without me.”

“ _Our dimension?_  Kuros–Shun, what do you  _mean_  ‘our dimension’?”

“I  _mean_ ,” he bit out impatiently, “there’s more than just our world. Academia came to attack us from another dimension–-that’s what we found out, that’s why we’d never heard of them before. And there are two more dimensions besides this one and  _theirs_.”

Dimensions… Academia…  _Yuuto, gone_. As if Sayaka didn’t already want to crawl under a rock and die every day.  _First my cowardice got Ruri taken without even a fight, now Yuuto’s left to find her before I could stop him. I’ve made Shun lose his sister_ and  _his best friend! How can he stand to look at me?_

She tried to inject some hope into the despondent conversation. “Yuuto can’t have left any earlier than the day before yesterday. M-Maybe… he’ll be back soon, with Ruri!”

“I’m not waiting around to find out. I’m following Yuuto, and  _we’ll_  be coming back with her.”

The words dropped the bottom out of her world.

Even in the darkest days and times, Yuuto or Shun had shown up to save her, Allen and Kaito from the ruthless Obelisk soldiers. Yuuto leaving without word was bad enough-–and severely crippled their counterattack forces. But Shun knowingly leaving them at Academia’s mercy as well…?!

“ _You can’t!_ ” she blurted desperately. This was not a penance she was ready to pay for her sin against her best friend–-nor was it one any of them could  _afford_  to pay.

“I have to go.”

“No! You don’t! What about the Resistance–-who will help Kaito lead us? Who can protect all our territory when we’re already spread thin? What about the innocent families-–children–-who are too scared to duel now, or have forsaken dueling? They’ll be  _carded_  without you!”

“Then they’ll have to learn how to fight!” Shun barked. “Just like Yuuto and I did.”

“But-–they’re-–they’re not all tough and fearless like you!”

“ _They’ll learn!_ ” he roared, waving his good arm. He looked wild, mad as a hatter. “I can’t stay here and babysit the whole city while my sister’s in danger. I  _won’t_.”

“Shun,  _please-_ –”

He got up, shrugging his father’s old coat stiffly around his non-functional arm. “I’ve already made up my mind.”

Sayaka cursed her eyes, feeling them sting.  _Do I really have to lose him too, on top of everything else?_  “ _Please_ , Shun! We need you. Don’t–-don’t  _leave us_!”

That made him stop, if only for a minute. The whole dimension held its breath with her, awaiting his final word.

“…All right, I’ll stay. But just until my arm is healed.”

Everything breathed in. Sayaka could not remember oxygen ever before having such a bittersweet tang.

* * *

Perhaps their peace would have lasted a long time, but Shun was gone when Sayaka woke up.

She’d fallen asleep last night after eating some old bread he’d pushed at her–-all she remembered was him insisting she take the bed, then a hazy thought that he’d slept nearby all night to look after her, close enough that his breathing overexcited her before lulling her to sleep.

When she did wake up, Shun’s old jacket was draped around her, and she’d felt a rush of excitement and satisfaction before realizing what that had to mean.

 _He lied… he said he’d stay, and he lied_.

Eventually she motivated herself to get up and put things back in order before heading back to the remnants of the rebellion–-she  _had_  to go, or Allen would be worried out of his mind.

But Sayaka stopped just before she started dusting covers and wiping down surfaces. Shun was gone and he might never come back, even if he  _did_  find Ruri. There was too much of a disconnect between him and home now.

In the last conversation they might have ever had, he yelled at her and was painfully selfish. Why should she do anything else for him?

_I shouldn’t lift another finger for Kurosaki Shun, not after he abandoned us. Knowingly. But–-why does even thinking that make me hurt?_

She gathered the bowl she’d brought, scurrying out the door.

_Why am I still trying to see his side, after all of this?_

She ducked down alleys and went through other abandoned houses to avoid the soldiers combing the streets, but the stinging pain in her heart and the questions in her mind couldn’t be avoided.

_Shun may have left today, but he’s really been gone for much longer. Why am I just missing him now?_

_…Why do I miss him at all?_


	4. pride goeth (sawatari/rin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Serena are besties. They use Momentum-minus in this dimension since it's not Neo Domino. Suuuper background ship: Serena/Shun.

“Oh, look Rin,” Serena said dryly. “It’s your  _show pony_.”

She got a sharp elbow to the gut for her trouble. No one dissed Sawatari Shingo in front of her. “You’re just jealous that  _my boyfriend_ knows how to socialize and impress others, while  _yours_  still hasn’t learned how to talk to anyone who doesn’t run a bird deck.”

Rin got a punch for that, but honestly she barely felt it. All her attention was on the posturer himself, Sawatari. Every afternoon he dropped by Synchro for a Riding Duel with Shun, as well as for a chance to show off whatever deck archetype he was maining now. His level of energy and self-confidence was unchanged and infectious, even two years after Yuugo first introduced her to him.

“Look, he may be an okay duelist  _now_ ,” Serena stressed, “but now’s not crunch time. Where were these great saves and strategies in the war? I’m telling you, he’s just been coming back over and over to impress you. Reiji still has some explaining to do on  _that_  Lancer choice.”

Rin ignored her.  _She’s just trying to psyche me out while we wait. Make me doubt him._  As if she hadn’t nursed her share of doubts about a boy with an ego like  _that_  when they met!

“ _Ladies and gentlemen!_  Your underground champion has had his chance to wow you with the same monsters as ever. Your patience can now finally be rewarded, thanks to  _Neophyte Neo New Sawatari_!”

“ _All of those mean the same thing!_ ” the Fusion girl hissed at the screen. Rin just giggles as she zipped up her riding suit.

* * *

_What goes around comes around_ , Rin had thought before, on the day she met the Lancers’ attention hog.  _You just can’t_ be _that arrogant without being due a serious wake-up call_.

It was almost worse that she could out-duel him anytime and any place. Beating Yuugo in a Riding Duel was no sweat, and Sawatari needed even less of her focus.

But he was just so  _exuberant_. Determined. He never quit, and he never admitted that anyone else was better. His spirit made Rin sit up and take notice when he visited City to preen and pose. Instead of dismissing him as Serena and her other counterparts did, she began to listen to his pep talks, challenge him to more practice duels, and teach him how to ride a D-Wheel in Manual.

 _And he calmed down some_.

It turned out that Sawatari’s consistent cries for attention came more from a fear of being ignored and discarded than from any real arrogance. (And it took her very little time at all to find that out, but it was such an intimate secret that she took pleasure in hoarding it, safeguarding his feelings.)

His clucking also hid a huge heart. One night Rin had tailed Sawatari around her sector, wondering why he hadn’t gone home with Kurosaki after finally winning against him. She’d been floored–-absolutely stunned–-to realize that he’d used his winnings to buy food that he was delivering to Commons orphans in the dead of night.

After that, well… their interactions were considerably much friendlier. Rin had promised herself that this was one self-inflated boy she’d take seriously, one she actually  _wouldn’t_  let fall. Not even during their riding lessons.

…No matter how hilarious he looked every time he face-planted.

* * *

“Earth to Machine Queen,” Serena teased from the present day. “It’s almost time. Unless you’re scared to finally do this.”

Rin startled–-then smirked, flipping her green bangs. “Scared of you, out on my turf?  _Nah_. Scared I’ll beat you two too badly,  _yeah_.”

The two girls glared playfully at one another for a few more seconds, until sparks practically materialized in the air between them. The moment of posturing broke when Rin heard the distinctive Momentum-minus engine of Sundae, the ice cream-colored D-Wheel she’d built for Sawatari from spare parts. Close behind, almost neck-and-neck, was Kurosaki’s unnamed D-Wheel. On the screen broadcasting their ongoing duel she saw that Serena would be inheriting a lead–her partner was up by 500 life points.

 _Good,_  she thought;  _I love a challenge_. _Though that deficit’s nothing we can’t take care of._

“They’re about to ride by,” Serena guessed. Her body was a live wire of nervous energy as they jogged outside and onto the track. “Any tips, Rin?”

“Don’t lock your legs or you’ll get hurt. You’re not really  _jumping onto_ the D-Wheel–-you’re jumping to where you’ll be, and your partner is catching you, putting you there.”

Her doppelgänger’s face matched her eyes; that explanation hadn’t entirely helped, then. “And you trusted  _Yuugo_ to do this?”

“It worked better than you’re thinking,” Rin said smugly, “but I also feel safer doing this now with Shingo than I ever did before. I wouldn’t trust anyone else.”

“ _Thanks_.”

“Relax, Serena. Kurosaki won’t let you get hurt. If you don’t trust me, trust him.”

And then the boys were bearing down on them. The crowd shrieked with excitement, ignorant to what would happen next, yet fully cognizant of the dangers of two girls standing in the road as bikes bore down on them. All the noise and commotion and danger would’ve scared a softer duelist–-so Rin wasn’t scared at all.

At the right time, she met Sawatari’s gray eyes under his wind goggles and winked. When he grinned and passed her, holding out his arm, she grasped it and was propelled into the air behind Sundae, landing more or less securely in the passenger seat.

Two seconds later, her deck was secured in next to her partner’s making this duel a Riding Royale–-hers and Yuugo’s invention following the Friendship Cup.

Barely an arm’s length away, Serena had slid her deck in its slot as well, and was looking exhilarated as she immersed herself in going from moving at zero miles per hour to moving at sixty.

“Hey babe,” Sawatari greeted, leaning back so his mouth was as close as possible to her ear. “I heard you saying nice things about me through the comms.”

“Yeah well, don’t let it go to your head. You’d better not have been eavesdropping on me and Serena instead of focusing when Kurosaki went for your life points just now!”

“No ma'am. I was completely focused on getting my ass kicked until you could turn things around for us.”

“That’s the spirit.” Rin shouted across the way to their opponents then, hyped up. “You ready to lose now?”

“Like hell!  _You’ve_  got nothing that can beat Revolution Falcon. And once  _my_  monsters come out, there’ll be no place for you to run.”

 _Oh yeah?_  “We’ll see about that!”

They rounded the next corner, starting the lap over again just as the duel light turned green for the Royale.

“ _Duel!”_


End file.
